Saturday, July 20, 2013
The Future is Cloudy
I talked to a submariner (ballistic nuke boat) last night. I told him I was reasonably sure that the future evolution of aircraft would be to drones as the human brain on board an airplane is that craft's weakest link. The plane can take a 20 g turn, the brain passes out (or dies) above 8 gs. That fact will make fighter drones inevitable. Moving on.
It is less clear to me the evolution of our Navy. I watch science fiction movies which place aircraft carriers in space (all of them but Lucas'; he makes starships like wind powered ships of the line, idiot) and I think what are we missing? We were building battleships during WWII when it was clear that their day had passed and that aircraft carriers were the new deadliest ship. Are we still building aircraft carriers when it is or should be clear that their time too has passed and something new will take their place? I think so, but what is the new thing?
Difficult to see. It will probably be a missile carrying boat (I'm just not sure about lasers and rail guns), and the most effective will be those no one can see. Sure enough, he said we had pulled the nuke missiles out of several submarines and replaced them with cruise missiles like 8 to a tube and there are 24 tubes. You do the math. In the future we could launch fighter drones from Ohio class SSBNs and make them invulnerable (generally) undersea aircraft carriers. But I've merely moved the carrier underwater, I have not replaced the carrier. I can't because of the limitations of my imagination.
Anyone? Bueller?
It is less clear to me the evolution of our Navy. I watch science fiction movies which place aircraft carriers in space (all of them but Lucas'; he makes starships like wind powered ships of the line, idiot) and I think what are we missing? We were building battleships during WWII when it was clear that their day had passed and that aircraft carriers were the new deadliest ship. Are we still building aircraft carriers when it is or should be clear that their time too has passed and something new will take their place? I think so, but what is the new thing?
Difficult to see. It will probably be a missile carrying boat (I'm just not sure about lasers and rail guns), and the most effective will be those no one can see. Sure enough, he said we had pulled the nuke missiles out of several submarines and replaced them with cruise missiles like 8 to a tube and there are 24 tubes. You do the math. In the future we could launch fighter drones from Ohio class SSBNs and make them invulnerable (generally) undersea aircraft carriers. But I've merely moved the carrier underwater, I have not replaced the carrier. I can't because of the limitations of my imagination.
Anyone? Bueller?
Labels: The Future of Naval Warfare
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:15 AM 
